Tag Archives: Nahum Tate

Episode 308. Mezzos on the Verge

November 20, 2024African American Singers, Art Song, Behind the Iron Curtain, Black History Month 2024, Forgotten Divas, French Opera, Full-Figured Baroque, Great Contraltos, Great Tenors, Lieder, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Singers of Color, VerismoAngela Morley, Angelo Zanardini, Boris Khaikin, Brigitte Fassbaender, Camille Saint-Saens, Cavalleria Rusticana, Charles Gounod, Charles Mackerras, David Climie, Dido and Aeneas, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Ebe Stignani, Elektra, Elena Obraztsova, Émile Augier, Ferdinand Lemaire, Franco Corelli, Georges Pretre, Gian Carlo Menotti, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti, Giovanni Verga, Giulietta Simionato, Götterdämmerung, Guido Menasci, Gwendolyn Killebrew, Henry Purcell, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Inge Borkh, Irwin Gage, Jean Madeira, Jorge Mester, Karl Lemcke, Kashchey the Immortal, Khovanshchina, Lev Steinberg, Modest Mussorgsky, Muriel Smith, Nadezhda Obukhova, Nahum Tate, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Pierre Boulez, Pietro Mascagni, Regina Resnik, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Ronald Cass, Samson et Dalila, Sapho, Shirley Verrett, Tatiana Troyanos, The Medium, Umberto Berrettoni, Wally Stottcountermelody

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I am taking a short break before posting the final in my Mexican Opera Singers miniseries to bring you a compilation episode that is sure to get your blood flowing. I’ve entitled it “Mezzos on the Verge,” and that is exactly what it is: mezzo-sopranos portraying characters in extreme emotional situations. Whether it is Dalila (portrayed by Ebe Stignani) summoning the pagan gods to give her strength to conquer an infatuated strongman; Elena Obraztsova or Nadezhda Obukhova casting spells or predicting the future; Giulietta Simionato as Santuzza confronting Franco Corelli’s faithless Turiddu on the steps of the Sicilian village church on Easter morning; Gwendolyn Killebrew as Waltraute imploring help of her sister Brünnhilde to circumvent the Twilight of the Gods; Jean Madeira as Klytemnästra desperately seeking rest for her troubled soul; Shirley Verrett as Sapho preparing to throw herself into the sea; or Tatiana Troyanos as Dido dying of a broken heart – there’s something for each of us who might be feeling themselves in over their heads these days. Unlike most of us. however, (and luckily for us as well), each of these magnificent mezzos is expressing that anguish in glorious song.

Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly support at whatever level you can afford.

Episode 232. Janet Williams and Paul Padillo Introduce Maria Ewing (Listeners’ Favorites III)

January 7, 2024African American Singers, Bel canto, Black History Month, Crossover, Giacomo Puccini, Gustav Mahler, In Memoriam, Listeners' Favorites, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Operetta, Orchestral Songs, Richard Strauss, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Opera, Verismo, Wolfgang Amadeus MozartAndrew Davis, Antonio de Almeida, Bernard Haitink, Bob Merrill, Carl Orff, Carmen, Carol Neblett, Christiane Eda-Pierre, Claude Debussy, Claudio Abbado, Claudio Monteverdi, Dale Duesing, Dennis Bailey, Dido and Aeneas, Dmitri Shostakovich, Don Giovanni, Elizabeth Collier, Eric Tappy, Francis Poulenc, François Le Roux, Funny Girl, George Bizet, Giacomo Puccini, Gioacchino Rossini, Gustav Mahler, Harold Arlen, Henri Meilhac, Henry Purcell, Horst Stein, Iain Sutherland, Idomeneo, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Jacques Offenbach, James Levine, Janet Williams, Jean Cocteau, Jean Rigby, Jerome Kern, John Pritchard, John Wilson, Jule Styne, Jules Massenet, Kurt Masur, L’incoronazione di Poppea, La Périchole, La voix humaine, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Le nozze di Figaro, Leonard Slatkin, Lorenzo da Ponte, Ludovic Halévy, Marc Soustrot, Maria Ewing, Maurice Maeterlinck, Maurice Ravel, Myung-Whun Chung, Nahum Tate, Oscar Hammerstein II, Oscar Wilde, Patrick Devin, Paul Padillo, Pelleas et Melisande, Raymond Leppard, Richard Hickox, Richard Rodgers, Richard Rodney Bennett, Richard Strauss, Romano Gandolfi, Ruggero Raimondi, Salome, Shane Hill, Shéhérazade, Siegmund Nimsgern, Simon James, Simon Rattle, South Pacific, Sylvain Cambreling, Ted Koehler, Tosca, Tristan Klingsor, Werther, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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January 9 is already the second anniversary of the death of the iconoclastic (and iconic) Maria Ewing, who died of cancer in her home outside of her native Detroit on January 9, 2022. She was an artist both admired and derided during her lifetime, whose importance since her death has only become more apparent. It so happens that two of my most faithful listeners, Janet Williams and Paul Padillo, chose the episode that I published in her honor as their favorite episode. Paul is a passionate opera advocate who maintains a blog as well as a Facebook page in which he writes with extraordinary eloquence about the musical genre we all adore. Janet is celebrated throughout the world as one of the finest singers of her generation who has gone on to become one of the most important voice teachers in the world today, teaching, with compassion and common sense, a technique grounded in the essentials of bel canto. Their spoken introductions to the episode highlight different aspects of what made Ewing so special. For Paul, he became a lifelong fan after hearing her performance of Blanche de la Force in Poulenc’s operatic masterpiece, The Dialogues of the Carmelites. For Janet, it was a shared provenance (both were natives of Detroit) as well as a common mentor, the late David Di Chiera, who founded and ran Michigan Opera Theatre, the company featured both Maria and Janet in some of their first operatic appearances. Maria’s passing hit me particularly hard because at the time of her death, I was in the midst of creating a special episode in her honor and had been immersing myself in her fascinating performances, finding myself more and more in awe of her one-of-a-kind artistry. This tribute episode is simply not to be missed.

Episode 211. Janet Baker @ 90

August 25, 2023UncategorizedAchim von Arnim, Anthony Lewis, Beverly Sills, Caterino Mazzolà, Christian Friedrich Henrici, Christopher Hassall, Claudio Monteverdi, Clemens Brentano, Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Dido and Aeneas, Ernest Lush, Felice Romani, Geoffrey Chaucer, Gioacchino Rossini, Giovanni Francesco Busanello, Giuseppe Patanè, Giuseppe Verdi, Gustav Mahler, Heinrich Heine, Henry Purcell, Hippolyte et Aricie, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Janet Baker, Jean Baptiste Racine, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, John Pritchard, Klaus Growth, L’incoronazione di Poppea, La Cenerentola, La Clemenza di Tito, Martin Isepp, Maurice Delage, Melos Ensemble, Nahum Tate, Neville Marriner, Norman Del Mar, Norman Foster, Ottorino Respighi, Picander, Pietro Metastasio, Raymond Leppard, Renata Scotto, Richard Strauss, Robert Ferguson, Roberto Ascoli, Simon-Joseph Pellegrin, Thomas Dunhill, Troilus and Cressida, Vasil Stefanov, Vincenzo Bellini, William Shakespeare, William Walton, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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This past week the opera world was plunged into mourning over the sudden death of Renata Scotto. Originally I had intended this week’s episode to be devoted to her memory. But I can’t even speak her name without bursting into tears. In other words, I need more time as I try to come to terms with her demise. I have decided to feature the matchless singing actor in the first episode of Season Five. In the meantime, we have another momentous occasion (and artist) to acknowledge: the 90th birthday of the English Rose: the phenomenal Janet Baker. Given that I could probably devote an entire podcast to Dame Janet, and given the wealth of material in my personal collection featuring this artist, much of it rare and unusual, I have chosen to feature this beloved artist in her third full Countermelody episode. There are few vocal artists in the history of classical music who have exhibited greater versatility than Janet Baker; this episode features many rare performances across the entirety of her long career of repertoire in which she had virtually no equal, as well as music in which she also excels but which might prove surprising. Thus we hear the expected mélodie, Lied, British song and Bach aria alongside Purcell’s Dido and pants roles by both Mozart and Richard Strauss. But we also hear such surprises as Monteverdi’s Poppea (sinuously and surprisingly sexy), Bellini’s Romeo (opposite Beverly Sills), William Walton’s Cressida (in the 1976 version of his opera Troilus and Cressida refashioned expressly for Baker), and a sublime extended orchestral song by Respighi, as well as the ultimate jaw-dropper, Rossini’s Cenerentola! We wish long life and continued health and vitality to one of the greatest mezzo-sopranos of the twentieth century!

Episode 127. Maria Ewing in Memoriam (Black History Month 2022)

February 4, 2022African American Singers, Bel canto, Black History Month, Broadway, Crossover, French Opera, Full-Figured Baroque, Giacomo Puccini, Gustav Mahler, In Memoriam, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Operetta, Richard Strauss, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, VerismoAndrew Davis, Antonio de Almeida, Bernard Haitink, Bob Merrill, Carl Orff, Carmen, Carol Neblett, Christiane Eda-Pierre, Claude Debussy, Claudio Abbado, Claudio Monteverdi, Dale Duesing, Dennis Bailey, Dido and Aeneas, Dmitri Shostakovich, Don Giovanni, Elizabeth Collier, Eric Tappy, Francis Poulenc, François Le Roux, Funny Girl, George Bizet, Giacomo Puccini, Gioacchino Rossini, Gustav Mahler, Harold Arlen, Henri Meilhac, Henry Purcell, Horst Stein, Iain Sutherland, Idomeneo, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Jacques Offenbach, James Levine, Jean Cocteau, Jean Rigby, Jerome Kern, John Pritchard, John Wilson, Jule Styne, Jules Massenet, Kurt Masur, L’incoronazione di Poppea, La Périchole, La voix humaine, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Le nozze di Figaro, Leonard Slatkin, Lorenzo da Ponte, Ludovic Halévy, Marc Soustrot, Maria Ewing, Maurice Maeterlinck, Maurice Ravel, Myung-Whun Chung, Nahum Tate, Oscar Hammerstein II, Oscar Wilde, Patrick Devin, Pelleas et Melisande, Raymond Leppard, Richard Hickox, Richard Rodgers, Richard Rodney Bennett, Richard Strauss, Romano Gandolfi, Ruggero Raimondi, Salome, Shane Hill, Shéhérazade, Siegmund Nimsgern, Simon James, Simon Rattle, South Pacific, Sylvain Cambreling, Ted Koehler, Tosca, Tristan Klingsor, Werther, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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The exceptional, distinctive Maria Ewing died of cancer on January 9 at her home outside of her native Detroit at the age of 71. Even before her death, I had been planning an episode on Maria Ewing, who last fall received an enormous amount of press as the mother of actor and director Rebecca Hall, whose latest film, Passing, was hitting the screens in a big way. The film is about two light-skinned Black friends in the 1920s, one of whom makes the conscious decision to present as white. The implication in much of the press was that Maria Ewing had done the same and was being taken to task for having done so. In actuality, Maria Ewing spoke frequently about her father’s apparent African American roots, and never actively tried to hide her (at times murky) family history. But, I submit to you, this is not the real story. In this episode, the first of my Black History Month 2022 series, I attempt to present as full a musical portrait of the artist as possible, allowing listeners to experience the unique musical and dramatic genius (and I use the term advisedly) of this fascinating artist. Few singers can survive comparison with Maria Callas. Maria Ewing, for all her demonstrable flaws, was one of the few artists that merit such a comparison. In this episode we hear Ewing in a wide range of material, from Purcell’s Dido to Puccini’s Tosca, with a nod to her two most famous roles, Carmen and Salome; an emphasis on both her Mozart portrayals and a focus on her aplomb with French music; and a sampling of her flair for pop music and jazz. I also discuss her sometimes controversial vocalism and role assumptions which in turn led to her blanket dismissal by her detractors. But in the end, it is her fascinating combination of carnality and innocence which made her unique. I remain, as I always have been, a devoted member of Club Ewing. This is a long-overdue Countermelody tribute to a unique and irreplaceable singer.